


Fall, Falling

by flaming_muse



Category: Glee
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-20
Updated: 2011-10-20
Packaged: 2017-10-24 19:44:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/267168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flaming_muse/pseuds/flaming_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Things Blaine loves in the autumn: football, warm apple cider, and Kurt.</p><p>set very soon after 3x03 "Asian F"</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fall, Falling

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Fall, Falling -- Herbstliebe](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9659156) by [Klaineship](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Klaineship/pseuds/Klaineship)



“Do you know what I like best about fall?” Kurt asked Blaine as they walked side-by-side along the sidewalk past the park.

It was after lunch on Saturday, and the area was busy. Kids were laughing and playing on the playground, dogs were running off the leash just beyond the fence, and everybody, including Blaine, seemed to be enjoying the beautiful, crisp day with its brilliant blue sky and not a single cloud in sight. He could smell a hint of wood smoke in the air. Autumn was finally here.

Blaine considered Kurt’s question; there were so many things to like about the season, but he and Kurt were different. He didn’t think his memories of flag football pick-up games on the Dalton quad were going to be high on Kurt’s list. “The trees turning?” Not only were the colors beautiful, but they would probably appeal to Kurt’s finely honed sense of aesthetics.

“No,” Kurt replied.

“Warm apple cider? The Lima Bean’s pumpkin-spice muffins?”

“No.”

Blaine thought a little more. If not the colors or the tastes, what else? “The scrunch of leaves beneath your feet?” He kicked his sneakers through the scattering of fallen leaves at the edge of the sidewalk in illustration. They weren’t deep yet, but they still make a satisfying crackling sound that got him excited about the thought of shuffling his feet through piles of them in the weeks to come. Walking in the leaves made him feel about eight years old in the best way, light-hearted and happy.

“No.”

“Flag football?”

Kurt laughed and shook his head. “No.”

“It was worth a try,” Blaine said. “Then I have no idea.”

“Scarves,” Kurt said with a dreamy sigh that Blaine had a few seconds before thought was only ever related to Kurt talking about _him_.

“Scarves?” he asked a little sharply, but that was _his_ dreamy sigh.

Kurt toyed with the collar of his shirt like he was imagining wearing one with it; his fingers at his throat distracted Blaine for a second. “Yes.”

“But you wore scarves all summer.”

“Those were summer scarves,” Kurt told him. “Now it’s time for wool scarves. Alpaca. Silk blends. _Cashmere_. And coats. Gloves. Hats.” Kurt turned to him, his eyes alight. “ _Hats_ , Blaine.”

Blaine forced himself to keep a straight face, though it was incredibly difficult when Kurt was so earnest and excited, his stride lengthening with the joy and anticipation of fashion moments ahead. “I seem to remember you wearing hats on ninety degree days in August, too.”

Kurt stared at him for a moment before asking, “Are you deliberately being obtuse?”

“Yes,” Blaine admitted and let himself grin.

Shaking his head, Kurt did that thing with his eyes where he was smiling at Blaine like he was wonderful and yet his face was mostly composed. Blaine loved it when Kurt’s eyes were deep and warm like that, but he found himself wishing he could get the whole smile more often when they weren’t alone.

Blaine reached out to take Kurt’s hand in his own, and Kurt gripped his fingers for a few seconds before glancing through the chain-link fence at the noisy soccer game taking place on the field beyond. He shot Blaine an apologetic look and pulled his hand back.

Blaine knew it wasn’t a rejection of him, even though his stomach clenched like it was. He just _loved_ Kurt, loved him so much it was a constant knot of emotion in his chest, and he hated when he couldn’t show it. He wasn’t stupid or forgetful of his own past, he understood why they had to be careful, but he _wanted_ to show it. He wanted to hold hands in the hallways or on the sidewalk. He wanted to dance with Kurt before Glee when Puck and Finn were jamming together. He wanted to kiss Kurt senseless everywhere and anywhere and not have to worry about it any more than Mike did when he kissed Tina.

He wanted Kurt to want to be less cautious and to be just as affectionate.

He knew Kurt loved him. He knew it from the subtle but unwavering affection Kurt showed him in public, and he knew it from the words Kurt murmured in his ear when they were alone. He knew it from the way Kurt smiled at him in the lunch room and kissed him fiercely in his car. He knew it from the way Kurt let down his guard with him like he did with no one else and from the fact that Kurt brought him _flowers_ at _school_ to support him this week when they could have been rivals instead.

Blaine _knew_ Kurt loved him. He just desperately wanted more. More of everything. More affection, more attention, more ability to express his feelings in public and private. More of _Kurt_. And he didn’t know what to do or how to get it, because he wasn’t going to push Kurt, and he wasn’t going to make them unsafe or make Kurt feel uncomfortable just because Blaine was feeling frustrated.

So he just slid his hands in the pockets of his pants and kept walking. Kurt was handsome and talented, caring, wonderful, like a dream in designer clothing beside him, and Blaine wanted to shout his feelings from the rooftops and whisper them against Kurt’s mouth right then and there, but he simply kept walking.

“Do you know what else I like about the fall?” Kurt asked as they passed a pair of mothers pushing strollers.

“What?” Blaine asked and tried to push his more melancholy thoughts out of his mind. It was a beautiful day, and they were together. He shouldn’t ask for more when what he had was so great.

“ _You_ in scarves,” Kurt said with a fond twinkle in his eyes.

“You say that, but I still remember the lecture you gave me last year about proper scarf tying technique,” Blaine said. “I lived in fear for weeks of the flash cards you threatened to make for me.”

“This year I’ll just tie them for you myself.”

Blaine couldn’t hold back a little flare of anticipation at the thought of Kurt draping a scarf around his neck, twisting the soft fabric into place like a caress and letting his fingers linger just a bit on Blaine’s throat and chest.

He wished he had a scarf then and there. He might have to carry one with him every day for the rest of the season.

“I am very okay with that,” he said.

They turned the corner onto Kurt’s street, and Blaine could feel the reality of their day ready to intrude as soon as they got back to Kurt’s house. Finn and Rachel would be there, and Kurt would be back on guard from the events of the week, even when it was just the two of them doing homework in the kitchen. Blaine understood, but he didn’t like it.

He looked up at the sky and the canopy of leaves starting to turn red and yellow. A few scrunched under his feet and tickled at his bare ankles. It was such a nice day; he wished they could spend it all outside and away from the rest of their lives. “Do you have any plans for tomorrow afternoon?” he asked.

Kurt shook his head. “What do you have in mind?”

“We could go apple picking.”

Clearly surprised by the suggestion, Kurt looked at him for a second before quirking an eyebrow and asking, “Can I wear a scarf?”

“Sure,” Blaine said with a smile. One of the best things about Kurt was that he almost always liked whatever ideas Blaine had. It made him feel like he was doing something right.

Kurt smiled back. “Then I’m in. I’ve been wanting to learn to make a tarte tatin. This will be the perfect opportunity. It’s a classic dessert, after all, and one I think I should master if I’m going to feel like I am conversant with a broad range of fruit tarts.”

“Of course,” Blaine said, his heart flipping in his chest because Kurt was irresistible when he was planning something.

“And if you want,” Kurt continued with feigned casualness, touching his already perfect hair, “we could make extra caramel and dip some apples in it.”

“Can we roll them in nuts?” Blaine asked. He didn’t know how Kurt knew, but he _loved_ caramel apples. “Or peanut butter chips?”

Kurt nodded, his eyes crinkling again at Blaine’s reaction. “I’ll get some coconut, too.”

“This is the best plan.” Without thinking about it first, Blaine let his fingers slide against Kurt’s, and this time Kurt grasped his hand and held it firmly between them, brushing against his leg as they walked toward Kurt’s house just a few driveways away.

Blaine let out a tense breath he didn’t realize he was holding at the contact. It was fall, he was in love, and he’d get to spend more time with Kurt tomorrow, too, just the two of them.

If he wasn’t going to be able to climb the trees and declaim his feelings to the world, at least he might be able to steal a kiss or two beneath their sheltering branches.


End file.
